Popcast: Frank Ocean Returns

August 24, 2016 8:31 PM

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In the last week, Frank Ocean has emerged from a four-year slumber with a slew of new releases: an album, “Blonde”; a visual album called “Endless”; and a magazine, Boys Don’t Cry. The deluge added another unlikely chapter to one of the more intriguing stories in pop: how Mr. Ocean, a former songwriter who first attracted notice as an affiliate of the outlandish Odd Future crew, has become one of the most mysterious artists working.

He did it, in large part, by fashioning his own mythology. Time and again, he has set the terms of the conversation around him, using everything from his music to his public pronouncements to his strategic quiet to navigate his identity construction.